


The Angel

by confundedgryffindor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, James is supportive, M/M, Panic Attacks, breif mention of large spiders in sinks, i'm impatient and haven't posted a fic in too long, sirius is a gay mess, this isn't beta read because
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confundedgryffindor/pseuds/confundedgryffindor
Summary: “It’s fine,” Sirius replied, although it was definitely not fine. A stranger just spilled his coffee that he payed four quid for, he was running on two hours of sleep, he had an essay he needed to write and he had extreme caffeine withdrawal which was causing a nasty headache. Now, if Sirius’ goddamn coffee machine was working, he wouldn’t be standing in the middle of a café, staring at his now crushed coffee cup on the verge of tears, but there he was.-aka the angsty coffee shop au no one asked for





	The Angel

**Author's Note:**

> okAy i've been working on this for wayy too long because i have a tendency to lose intrest in my wip's, but i just,, i can't really work on pride at the moment so here's a shitty one shot

Sirius was a mess today. His coffee machine had stopped working, his sleeping pills decided not to work last night, he had an essay due today, there was a huge ass spider in his bathroom sink and James hadn’t done the laundry.

 

So, slipping in and out of a seemingly constant anxiety attack, Sirius walked to the near campus coffee shop in dirty joggers and James’ jumper that was way too big for him. His hair was tied in a bun that somehow was too loose and too tight at the same time and he was wearing his glasses that he never, ever wore.

Sirius got in line and tried very hard not to let his anxiety get the best of him, shuffling from one foot to the other. He ordered a coffee from a bored looking girl that he payed _four_ quid for, which almost felt like the pinnacle of shitty things, but somehow he thought that the worst was yet to come. He set off to a table far in the back and desperately tried not to trip on his shoelaces or bump into a stranger. The only free table had a few crumbs and a torn up tissue scattered across it and there was an empty cup standing there, but Sirius didn’t really care. He just desperately needed to write this essay and get some coffee into his system.

Just as he was about to set down his book bag on the dirty table, a stranger bumped into him, causing him to drop the coffee cup. The cup shattered against the floor and coffee splashed up on his feet and trousers. _Oh_ , so this was the pinnacle he had been waiting for. Sirius stared at the cup and his breath caught in his throat.

“Shit! Sorry mate,” a man with a thick welsh accent said behind him.

“It’s fine,” Sirius replied, although it was definitely not fine. A stranger just spilled his coffee that he payed four quid for, he was running on two hours of sleep, he had an essay he needed to write and he had extreme caffeine withdrawal which was causing a nasty headache. Now, if Sirius’ goddamn coffee machine was working, he wouldn’t be standing in the middle of a café, staring at his now crushed coffee cup on the verge of tears, but there he was. Sirius took a shuddering breath and a tear rolled down his cheek.

He was overreacting. He knew he was overreacting. It was just a coffee. Except it wasn’t just a coffee, it was four _fucking_ quid that would help Sirius being a functioning human being for at least two hours. But once the first tear had fallen, the rest didn’t seem want to stay in anymore, and he was suddenly sobbing over a crushed cup of coffee.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Sirius flinched but he didn’t looks up to see who it was, he just kept his eyes down on the now very blurry coffee cup remains.

“Hey, are you alright?” it was the same man who’d bumped into him. Sirius just let out a shuddering sob. “I’ll get you a new coffee, alright? Just sit down, I’ll be right back.”

Sirius sat down and took his glasses off, and then he just started to ugly sob into his hands. He considered calling James, but the fact that he was crying in the middle of a coffee shop was embarrassing enough, he didn’t need his friend there to fuss over him and cause an even bigger scene. But then again, it was James. James would hug him and buy a new coffee along with a chocolate muffin, he would give Sirius a cigarette and then take him back to the flat and tell him that the essay could wait. But it couldn’t wait because Sirius wasn’t living off his parents’ money anymore and he couldn’t afford to lose this scholarship.

After what felt like a lifetime and two minutes at the same time, he eventually settled on calling James, so with still shaking hands, he got out his phone and called him.

James picked up after the fourth ring.  
“I’m in the middle of a lecture, what is it?” he hissed. Sirius let out another sob.  
“Shit, what’s going on?” James’ tone changed from the cold hiss to the ‘You are my fucking brother and I will fix this immediately’ almost comically fast, and if he wasn’t a panicking mess, Sirius probably would have laughed.

“I-I’m in the coffee shop ‘cause our coffee machine broke and this guy spilled my fucking coffee and I’m so stressed and tired and I just started crying and now I can’t calm down and-“

“Hey, calm down, Sirius. You’re at the coffee shop near campus, right?” James asked.

“Y-yeah,” Sirius hiccoughed.

“I’ll be there in five,” and with that, James hung up.

Sirius took another shuddering breath and ran his hands through his face, smearing out the tears. He sniffed a couple of times, urging himself to calm down, which conveniently enough ended with another sob.

_Fuck_. He wasn’t usually this messy and stressed. Sirius was cocky and arrogant and carefree, not the guy who started crying because of a cup of coffee. Naturally, this train of thought caused another sob to escape his lips. He dug his fingernails into the palm of his left hand and covered his eyes with the other. He took a calming breath and sniffed a couple times more, his leg bouncing fast under the table.

“I’ve got your coffee,” the man who’d bumped into Sirius said and placed a cup in front of him. Sirius looked up and was greeted by a blur of colours that could be a man if he was wearing his glasses, but they were still on the table and Sirius couldn’t quite see where he’d put them.

“Thank you,” Sirius croaked. “Could you... Er... Could you give me my glasses? I uh... I really can’t see anything,” the man snorted and handed Sirius his glasses. Sirius wiped them off on his sleeve and put them on, and suddenly the man wasn’t a blob of colours, but a very, very beautiful man, about Sirius’ age. He almost looked like an angel. A tall angel with tawny curls cut into an undercut, an angel with green eyes with specks of gold in them, an angel who was wearing a hoodie and a jean jacket, an angel who had a scar slashing across his face and who had his right nose wing pierced. Sirius almost wanted to cry again. This man was so fucking beautiful and Sirius was wearing James’ yellow fucking jumper and grey sweatpants that now had coffee stains on them and his face was red and tear stained and he hadn’t shaved yet because of that fucking spider in the sink.

“I’m sorry for bumping into you,” the man said and sat down in the chair opposite of Sirius, despite the fact that he wasn’t invited to do so. But Sirius couldn’t really be bothered because holy shit this man.

“It’s fine, really,” Sirius said, still sniffing. “Well not really, it was kinda the pinnacle of shitty things to happen today, but I’m not angry or anything.”

The man smiled and pushed the coffee cup further towards Sirius, who took a sip. Suddenly, the very thought of his break down was so pathetic that he almost wanted to cry again. He probably would start crying when James got there, actually. Today was a very shit day indeed.

Despite the coffee being extremely hot, Sirius gulped it down. It was stronger than Sirius usually brewed it and was slightly too bitter, and it burned his mouth, but he really didn’t care. He needed to get rid of this goddamn headache and get back to the flat, curl up in James’ bed and watch How to train your dragon for the fifteenth time. He still had that stupid essay, but the mere thought of it caused his breath to quicken and his hands to tremble.

“I uh-… My mate is picking me up, but thank you for buying me a new coffee,” Sirius said and stood up. He grabbed his bag and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

“It’s no problem,” the man smiled. He had a dimple, a _fucking_ dimple. Just when Sirius thought that this stranger — whom he’d just had a mental breakdown in front of — couldn’t be more attractive.

Sirius gave an awkward nod and then left the shop.

James was standing outside with a cigarette dangling between his lips. Sirius didn’t say anything, he just walked up to James and wrapped his arms around him.

“I’m going home and I’m going to sleep in your bed because it somehow smells different even though we use the same shower gel, and you’re going to roll with it because I just had a panic attack in front of the most attractive bloke I’ve ever seen,” Sirius mumbled against James’ shoulder. James snorted and took a drag from his cigarette. Sirius took a step back and wiped his nose.

“Do you want me to join?” James asked and handed his cigarette to Sirius.

“Of course I want you to join, I need to hold your hand when I watch _How to train your dragon_ ,” Sirius said and took a pull. James snorted again and they began walking towards their flat.

 

Sirius woke up in James’ bed a few hours later, he was tucked safely under the duvet, his laptop was closed and his glasses were laying on top. He felt content for a split second and then—

“FUCK! My essay!” he scrambled up into a sitting position and shoved his glasses onto his face, and started looking for his phone so he could check the time.

And as it turned out, it was supposed to be handed in two hours ago. He let out a long string of curses, both in English and French, and he seriously considered punching the wall so hard that he broke his hand. _“Oh, I’m so sorry for not handing in my bullshit essay, Professor, but I accidentally broke my hand right when we were supposed to hand it in. I sincerely apologise, I’ll have it ready in 1-3 business months.”_

He slammed his fist against the wall, not hard enough to break it, of course, but enough to elicit another string of curses.

“Padfoot! What the fuck are you doing?!” James peered into the room, frowning.

“My fucking essay,” Sirius said through clenched teeth. “I was supposed to hand it in two hours ago and it’s not even done yet and I can’t afford to fall behind and I-,” his hands started to shake, his breath coming in short, almost trembling gasps.

“Shh,” James cut him off and sat down next to him. “It’s going to be fine,”

“It’s not though!” Sirius snapped. “I’m gonna fail and lose my scholarship and I will be fucking homeless and get addicted to heroin and die from a fucking overdose!”

James sighed and wrapped his arms around Sirius pulling him close. Sirius swallowed hard and dislodged himself from James’ grasp.

“I need a smoke,” he muttered, his voice hoarse. Sirius rose to his feet and scrubbed his face, “Where are your fags?”

“My left jacket pocket,” James sighed and pulled out his phone, “I’m inviting Lily and her new roommate over for a movie night so you can think about something else,”

“My essay-,” Sirius began, but James cut him off.

“Fuck your essay,” he said, not looking up from his phone. “I’ll email your Professor and ask if you can hand it in tomorrow instead,”

“Thank you,” Sirius pulled his hair out of his bun and ran his hands through it a couple of times. James waved a dismissive hand after Sirius as he left the room.

He shrugged James’ jacket on and padded out on their small balcony, only half closing the door behind him. He sat down in one of the battered chairs and crossed his legs, and took a few breaths as he dug through the left jacket pocket. He put the cigarette between his lips, lit it and took a long drag, the smoke burning the back of his throat. He let his head fall back and closed his eyes and willed himself to not think. To not think about the essay, or about the fact that he hadn’t showered in two days, or the large spider, or the mental breakdown he had in the coffee shop. In front of the most attractive fucking stranger he’d met in probably forever, no less.

Sirius heaved out a sigh and took another pull, hoping that the smoke could clear his head at least a little bit. He opened his eyes and looked down instead, and started picking on a loose thread on James’ jacket sleeve. It felt good to have his hands occupied, one holding a cigarette and another mindlessly picking the thread, it gave him something else to focus on, other than public breakdowns and large spiders.

James poked his head through the balcony door, “Learn how to close the fucking door, Pads. It reeks inside,”

Sirius took a drag, then blew it out in James’ face, who coughed and scrunched up his nose, “You smoke under the kitchen fan on the lowest setting like eighty percent of the time, Jamie,” he flicked some ash off into the over filled ashtray that sat on their small table. James waved his hand dismissively.

“That’s not what I wanted to talk about,”

“No?”

“No,” James’ hand went up to his hair. “Lily and her roommate are on their way. His name’s Remus, by the way. Lily reckons you’ll like him,”

Sirius nodded and mimicked James’ gesture of running his hand through his hair, “Alright, I’ll come inside in a few minutes. I just need to clear my head,”

James nodded and retreated back into the flat. Sirius sighed again. He wasn’t really in the mood for hanging out with a new guy he’d never met before, he could barely stand the thought of James and Lily right now, as horrible as it sounded.

Sirius sat there and smoked until the filter threatened to burn his fingers, then he just sat there, and listened to the cars passing by, not thinking.

After what could’ve been five minutes or half an hour, James poked his head through the door again, “Mate, they’re here,”

Sirius suppressed a groan and rose to his feet, “I don’t really feel like socialising, you know,”

“Too late,” James slung his arm over Sirius’ shoulder and led him back into the flat. Sirius didn’t bother with suppressing his groan this time. He shrugged James’ arm off and sighed as they made their way into the living room.

Lily was sitting on their couch, talking to—

_The Angel._

Fuck. Fuck shit. The goddamn Angel (what did James say his name was again?) that Sirius had his stupid mental breakdown in front of was sitting right there, on his couch, speaking to Lily. Sirius felt his heartbeat quicken as his breath caught in his throat.

“Pads?” James frowned and put his hand on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Fuck,” Sirius stared at The Angel, who looked up. “Nope!” Sirius exclaimed and pushed James away. “No fucking way,”

All eyes were now on Sirius, “What are you on about?”

Sirius just shook his head, “We’re not doing this. You—,” he pointed at The Angel, “Go outside for like twenty minutes, then you can come back,”

“Sirius, what the fuck are you talking about?” James looked genuinely concerned, as if he thought Sirius was losing his mind. The Angel and Lily just looked confused, and The Angel even went so far that he rose to his feet.

“You know that attractive bloke I had my fucking panic attack in front of? _That’s_ that bloke, and I’m not gonna use my second impression like this, looking exactly the same. So you’re banished for twenty minutes while I shower and shave, then you’re welcome back in so I can introduce myself without crying. Go,”

The Angel laughed, “Alright then,” he walked towards the door.

“Great,” Sirius said, and escaped into his room.

 

Twenty minutes later, Sirius had both showered and shaved, and gotten into mostly clean clothes. He slipped back into the living room, and The Angel was back at his couch. Sirius swallowed hard and plastered a smile onto his face.

“Right, okay. Let’s redo this shit,” he cleared his throat and stuck out his hand to The Angel. “Hi, I’m Sirius Black. Nice to meet you,”

The Angel seemed to be suppressing a laugh as he shook Sirius’ hand, “Remus Lupin. It’s a pleasure,”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it! comments are always appreciated :-)
> 
> [my tumblr ](https://confunded-gryffindor.tumblr.com/)


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